ROCKFORD — Bear sightings — with a capital B — could be more commonplace in the Rockford area if Tim Dimke’s dream comes true.

The Rockford Park District leader hopes the multimillion upgrades underway at Sportscore Two in Loves Park could help put the city in the market to land the Chicago Bears’ summer training camp.

For now, it’s just a dream. And a long-term one at that. The Bears are under contract to hold summer camp at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais through 2022.

Up to now, talk of bringing the Bears to Rockford has been little more than fleeting mentions at a few meetings of the Winnebago County Regional Tourism Facility Board. It also made its way into Winnebago County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen’s remarks from the podium at the official kickoff to the $30.5 million expansion of Sportscore Two and the Indoor Sports Center last week. The expansion is part of a project dubbed Reclaiming First for its goal of making Rockford a top destination for amateur sports.

“I look forward in a few years, when the Chicago Bears camp is right here, Tim,” said Christiansen last week addressing Dimke and nearly 200 project supporters, who met the idea with a mix of cheers, applause and a few chuckles.

Dimke said the vision of hosting Bears training camp is just one of many things being considered to keep the new facilities in use year-round. He said the timing of training camp fits into a regular late-July/early-August lull in soccer tournaments. He expects to see new hotels built in the area to serve the thousands of young athletes that will attend tournaments at Sportscore Two. Those same hotels could also provide the summer camp housing the Bears need, he said. The expanded indoor facility will boast 70-foot ceilings with natural light and enough artificial turf for a full-sized football field.

The Chicago Bears passed on Rockford 13 years ago when the team was looking for a new location to hold its summer training camp. Rockford University was one of 12 colleges the team visited in 2001 when it decided to move camp to Illinois after 18 years at University of Wisconsin-Platteville. But the team said Rockford University, then Rockford College, didn’t have the space needed. Olivet Nazarene was ultimately selected from a final four that included Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Millikin University in Decatur and Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.

The Bears could give the area a huge economic boost, which is one of the goals of the Reclaiming First initiative.

Approximately 100,000 fans travel to Bourbonnais each year to watch the Bears training camp, said Gary Griffin, director of alumni and university of relations for Olivet Nazarene. He said having the Bears in town generates about $2 million per year in private spending, but that’s just a portion of the economic benefit. The bigger benefit, Griffin said, comes from families who visit Bourbonnais to watch the Bears and discover that it’s a great community to raise a family or start a businesses.

“That’s the real economic impact,” Griffin said. “And we’ve seen that happen in the last 13 years.”

Olivet, Griffin said, will enjoy another record year of enrollment this fall.

The University has made several upgrades to its facilities in recent years including new artificial turf, weight room and exercise equipment, re-sodded practice fields and a bigger locker room. The upgrades were done for Olivet’s student athletes but serve the Bears as well.

Bourbonnais shouldn’t necessarily feel threatened by Dimke’s dream to host Bears camp. Bears General Manager Phil Emery has expressed high satisfaction with Olivet’s facilities, and the training grounds are just about an hour’s drive from downtown Chicago, a bit closer than Rockford.

Dimke also stressed that his goal is not to set the district on a course to poach the team away from another Illinois town. But should the Bears go shopping for a new site like they did in 2001, Dimke wants Rockford to be ready.

Kevin Haas: 815-987-1410; khaas@rrstar.com; @KevinMHaas

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